Hows the new blacktop stratocaster

skysc · **Joined:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:57 pm **Posts:** 97

Wow , i think fender has just meet my dream .

I play metal and always love the h/h configuration .. now i jsut find that fender intropduce a blacktop stratocaster which is HH , made in mexico ( i believe) , sonic blue color with
maple neck .

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Blacktop-Str ... 5524363827

this guitar look nice . anyone played one . ??? how does it sound .

i would probably change the humbuckers and the volume knobs and put locking tuners on it .

but 449 $ for a basic price is good .

if they play as good as mexican , im defenatly going for one .

oneal lane · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:22 am

I have one. I bought it about one month ago at a Guitar Center. $ 449 The GC employees did not know what it was.... OH that's just a odd guitar. They had no knowledge of Fender Blacktop product line, and neither did I, I just fell in love with a blind date so to speak.

I have the Sonic Blue with mint green pickguard and rosewood fretboard. I absolutely love it and it is my favorite Stratocaster that I own.

To start with Blacktop's are MIM guitars. They have the narrower neck spacing like other MIM guitars. The fit and finish on my Blacktop is flawless!!!! The neck treatment on them is very nice. It is finished with the classic "amber" finish and not the "anemic pale" finish like on recent MIM standards. I do not know if the finish is nitro or poly but its flawless!!!

The knobs are not traditional fender strat knobs, they are fender amp knobs. At first I did not like them but now have grown to love them. It is not easy to change them to standard knobs. the pot stems are smooth and circular, not splined and split like standard pots.

The switch is 5 position, at first I did not understand why not a 3 way switch, but came to understand and love split coil circuitry. You get fat sound and strat single coil all out of one guitar.

If your going to change the pickups and pots you might as well not buy a blacktop and modify and old standard etc.

Fender Mexico has done a great job with this guitar, I cannot overstate that.

Like I said it's my favorite Strat of all that I own, MIA, MIM etc!!!

Shredd6 · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:22 pm

I did try both the Strat and Tele out one day, and I would have to say that to my ears the Tele had a better sound. I heard a distinctive difference between the two. Not sure why, I have no real explanation, that's just what I heard with my own ears. I would try both out when you check out Blacktops.

notthedocter27 · **Joined:** Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:52 pm **Posts:** 21

Hi I purchased the candy apple red with a maple neck. I am amazed at the value of the guitars. First, 22 frets....nice.. second the neck has the glossy finish,.. really nice,..not a vintage, but it is tinted and shines.. spaghetti logo ,.. excellent... Finish is good.,, not the candy apple i was expecting,.. is a little darker... but i am ok with that. Machine heads are solid as a rock....The pickups sounded good, didn't play with them too much, had an Emg dg20 solderless kit waiting to jump in there. Ie .. I do like the dg20's kit silent, completely silent great tones, but if anyone is looking for one, it is for sale ,.. i think it is too complex for me, and I love gilmour but the cost dosent fit my level of playing... The neck is nice, plays like a dream, I bought a Fender 50's series classic, and , was it worth the extra 250 to get a v neck and a deeper tint, ah still debating that one.... the blacktop in my opinion is the best deal out there for fenders, they have an excellent neck, if your into the humbuckers,.. you get one helluva nice guitar, if your one like me, who likes to upgrade and tweak and has 2 epi les pauls...this is a solid base to build off of... I had purchased and returned 2 different stratocaster upgrade models,,, before purchasing the blacktop, both had dings,paint issues, and the neck , no matter how clean my fingers were built up gunk, like blackened as i played... was weird.... Well worth the money but dont go pay 449 at gc, unless they got a deal for you, at least 10 percent, . I call there often, and they give me min 10% percent and they now ship to the store for free.... which is nice, and your more likely not to get a floor model that has been kicked around.. that is my experience with the blacktop, if you like the humbuckers, the only upgrades i could see beneficial would be better pots and switch, string tree,nut?....bridge/tremelo....

Noisemaker05 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 19, 2011 11:17 am **Posts:** 9

I recently bought a Blacktop myself. I have not regretted my decision for an instant. The guitar is well-made and beautiful. I'm pretty sure almost all the models coming out of Mexico have a poly finish nowadays. Aesthetically, the guitar is gorgeous, although most people have found it takes them a while to love the amp-style knobs. You very well may want to replace the pickups, but give them a chance first. A lot of people have been very pleasantly surprised by their bite and clarity. If you really rip on your tremolo, locking your strings down is always a good idea. If you're on the edge about this guitar, I say jump.

oneal lane · **Posted:** Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:51 am

As I stated above, I really love mine.

I was back in a GC again and looked at some other new MIM's and it looks like the neck treatment has improved over past recent years.

I have a 2008 MIM standard and it has the pale anemic finish. I may update it and spray it with the amber Nitro from StewMac.

I_Speak_Blues · **Joined:** Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:23 pm **Posts:** 5

oneal lane wrote:

I have one. I bought it about one month ago at a Guitar Center. $ 449 The GC employees did not know what it was.... OH that's just a odd guitar. They had no knowledge of Fender Blacktop product line, and neither did I, I just fell in love with a blind date so to speak.

I had a similar experience at Guitar Center with my first guitar. I bought a Laguna--their own house brand, for Pete's sake--and all the guy could tell me was "Um...I think it's some kind of Stratocaster." Wound up being a decent guitar, no thanks to his expert advice.

As for the original question...Since you're talking about changing pickups and some other hardware, I'm guessing that the stock isn't as important to you as the construction of the body and neck. I can tell you that the build quality on these is pretty excellent. Not American level, obviously, but I don't think you'll find much to complain about. MIM Fenders are getting better and better of late, and I personally think the Blacktops are fantastic deal. I played a few at GC a week or so ago, and was very impressed. Really comfortable necks...I could take a nap on one of those.

oneal lane · **Posted:** Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:45 pm

I think often GC employees are not guitar players, nor musicians etc. They are just guys who needed a job.

JBat · **Joined:** Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:42 am **Posts:** 80

oneal lane wrote:

I think often GC employees are not guitar players, nor musicians etc. They are just guys who needed a job.

I agree. They walk around with those "Expert" badges on, and all I can think of is, "oxymoron." :mrgreen:

JBat · **Joined:** Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:42 am **Posts:** 80

I had the chance to handle one of the Blacktops yesterday at a non-GC music store (didn't plug in), and I thought it was a really nice and well made guitar. Fit and finish looked good. For the money, it looks tough to beat.

rwright64 · **Joined:** Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:45 pm **Posts:** 8

oneal lane wrote:

I think often GC employees are not guitar players, nor musicians etc. They are just guys who needed a job.

I was talking to the general manager of a Guitar Center a few weeks ago and the guy was totally clueless about guitars. I couldn't believe it!

rkreisher · **Posted:** Sat Jan 22, 2011 10:12 pm

I just recently got my Blacktop (Black with Rosewood neck). I absolutely love it.

Neck: A little thinner at the nut than my other 2 Strats, but I can deal with that. Nice dark rosewood fingerboard. Yellow tinted neck. Ping tunners (I already changed them out for Fender/Schaller "F" tuners just because I like them better). Medium frets. Alnico V humbuckers with a 5 way switch. Vintage 6 point tremolo, but would like a thicker steel block, but the one on it is ok. I had mine set up with Fender Bullets All Nickel 10-46's. It does have those black Fender amp volume and tone knobs which will be changed out as soon as my Tele Chrome knobs come in.

I have played this for guitar for 5 hours a day for the last 5 days, and I absolutely love this guitar. This has been the best $385 ($285 plus I used my Squier CV 60 as a trade in) I spent in a long time.

Excellant guitar for Rock, Metal, Blues, and Country.

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